ethics

Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has gone on record before proclaiming the potential risks of artificial intelligence, and now he’s putting his money where his mouth is. The intrepid inventor and entrepreneur announced a donation of $10 million to help fund research to “keep AI beneficial” to humanity today. The funds go to the Future of Life Institute (FLI), an… Read More

A lot of recent moves in the gaming space to ban, investigate or curtail certain aspects of its output can seem egregious. However seen in the light of how shady game makers tend to behave, and the need to keep their sleazy tactics at bay, such moves are often understandable. Still, there are costs to games as a medium that this sort of thing keeps happening. Read More

When I came to the U.S. in 1980, I was young and naïve. I used to think that corruption and ethical lapses were just a third-world ill. Eventually, I became a tech CEO and learned the harsh realities of American business. Yes, standards are much higher, and breaches are punished, but the temptations are just the same here as they are in any other country. Ethical lapses (which are a form… Read More

In the eyes of imaginative and opportunistic advertisers and marketers, bloggers and online influencers are the new celebrities and athletes. Brands are showering them with endorsement deals rich with products, cash, trips, exclusive access to information, and VIP treatment each and every day, creating a new genre of star spokespersons.
Many expert and lifestyle “citizen” bloggers… Read More

It’s true, of course, and not just from a Sci-Fi point of view. With robots doing everything from vacuuming our floors to storing our data to performing surgery, there is a growing need for an international body to establish standards. If, as British robotics professor Noel Sharkey says, “decisions about [robots’] application will be left to the military, industry and… Read More

Israeli scientists have developed software that turns your ugly mug into a mathematically beautiful visage. Yes, we have evolved a great deal, us humans.
What the software (a Photoshop plugin) does is alters a face to make it “look” more attractive, based on mathematics and “perceived” attractiveness. If you’ve watched any of those TLC or Discovery Channel… Read More

Stem cell research, whether you agree with it or not, looks to have taken another step forward recently.
A company called Stemagen out of La Jolla, California has “created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells taken from adults, a significant advance toward the goal of growing personalized stem cells for patients suffering from various diseases,” reports… Read More

It seems Jeff Gerstmann, formerly of Gamespot, had a falling out with management over a review of Kane & Lynch and either was fired or left of his own accord. The game’s maker, Eidos, was upset by his unfair assessment of this holiday blockbuster featuring Dean Kane and Willie Lynch, two gun-toting country western singers who are out to fight the mob in downtown Toronto. The game is… Read More

This is more meta than we’re used to ’round here, but PC World‘s editor, Harry McCracken, just quit the magazine because he planned to write an article called “Ten Things We Hate About Apple.” But we all know that’s it’s actually been made illegal in the past few years to write anything critical about Apple. One of the publisher’s higher-ups… Read More